Ask HN: Focus and concentration • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Focus and concentration

#11

Post by wmboy » Sun, Mar 20, 2011, 9:23 PM UTC

Try the Pomodoro technique... set a timer for a period of time (between 15 to 30 minutes long) and focus on working on a project constantly. Once the timer sounds, stop working (even if you feel like you could keep going) and have a 5 minute break).

There's also the (10+2)*5 technique were you work for 10 minutes, stuff around for 2 minutes then repeat 5 times. After an hour you've had 50 minutes of productive time and 10 minutes of "play time".

Re: Ask HN: Focus and concentration

#12

Post by stevetjoa » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 11:37 PM UTC

plinkplonk wrote: post #7

When I used to suffer from this(no longer, touch wood) I found this extract from Steven Pressfied's "The War of Art" inspiring "In my late twenties I rented a little house in Northern California; I had gone there to finish a novel or kill myself trying. By that time I had blown up a marriage to a girl I loved with all my heart, screwed up two careers, blah blah, etc., all because (though I had no understanding of thi…

This excerpt is fantastic -- refusing to let Nixon's impeachment derail his path toward writing a novel.

When I find myself about to lose focus, I ask myself, "Ten years from now, are you going to remember that crappy TV show you watched for one hour on a Tuesday, or are you going to remember the moment your advisor kicked you out of his group?"

Re: Ask HN: Focus and concentration

#13

Post by katieben » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 1:07 AM UTC

Here's what helped me:

1. LOVE what you do. Figure out how to love what you do. 2. For the stuff you aren't as crazy about:

- If you're on a Mac, download SelfControl. It permanently blocks websites in all browsers for a certain period of time, making it appear pretty nonreversible. I block facebook, twitter, and of course, hacker news. (:

- Use a to-do list. Make it consist of a reasonable number of bite-sized tasks.

- Take care of yourself - get sleep, eat right, exercise.

- Give yourself a time limit so you HAVE to let go. Transfer the perfection from the task itself, to getting the task done efficiently. If you're on a Mac, download Vitamin-R. It forces you to chunk out blocks of time, and explain exactly what you're going to accomplish in the 45 minutes of focus you probably have. Read the Vitamin-R manual, it's actually really helpful.

- Study the Pomodoro technique. That's something you can do on Win/offline; Vitamin R makes it dead-easy.

- Make a chart for yourself. Mine's big, neon, and plastered on the wall in front of my desk where I'm reminded of it. Every day, give yourself a mark about how focused you were, and whether or not you accomplished everything on your to-do list. This'll help you learn what realistic to-dos are.

Good luck, you can do it! (: